The yacht was being tossed all over the place. The elderly folks were vomiting non-stop and the ones who were not sick were cleaning vomit off of the floor, the beds, the brass railings and almost any and every surface you could imagine.
Donald was second-guessing himself about whether he should have rescued this boatful of puking people and wondering if his boat would ever be the same again! “I’ll get you for roping me into this,” he told Carl in his mind. He continued on his westerly course and worriedly realized they could run out of gas before reaching Alaska!
Meanwhile, Bob Perkins, the president of the homeless initiative, was meeting with John, his aide and they were working out details for opening the Los Angeles Homeless solution.
“We have already sent the cruise ship that was going to service Seattle down to Los Angeles, but we will need more. Put a call in to our superiors so I can request more ships, then put a call into the clinic in Seattle and let the workers know they can have two weeks off, paid, living at the clinic before we ship them off to LA. Also, call the ones at the park, and give them the same news. We will put them up at the clinic in Seattle, since it will mean less cost for us than putting them at a hotel.”
“Then, get contractors working on the clinic in LA, double-time. We need the whole thing finished in a month. We also need to find a suitable location for the main base and for the clinic for that operation. If we can find a close enough location for the base, we won’t need any vans for driving them out to the launches that will take them to the ships. Just as soon as we have acquired the land for the base, get the posters made up to tell the homeless where to come. That should be just about enough to keep you busy for a few days. I’ll be waiting by the phone for the call about the extra ships. Thank you John.”
Back on the yacht, fortunately, the following day, the waves ceased and there was only light rain. Donald checked his instrument readings and looked at his nautical charts after turning the steering over to Bruce, who eagerly grabbed the wheel. Sue went from bed to cot to chair, giving everyone water bottles, encouraging them to rehydrate. She was concerned about May, a slight, wiry, 80 year old of Asian descent who kept asking for ginger. “I don’t think we have any, but I will check, “ feeling like if May didn’t drink something soon, she wouldn’t make it.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Sue looked through box after box and amazingly enough found a small box of ginger tea, among the other teas! She had Nancy make the tea for May and asked her to take it to her once it was ready.
May sipped on the tea for a while and kept it down, The color started returning to her face and she actually had no more vomiting. After an hour had passed, May was asking Nancy for some more tea for her Asian friends. Karen asked May, after seeing how much better she was, if the tea was only for the Asian people or if she could have some too. May gladly shared the tea with Karen and whoever else wanted it and before you knew it, all vomiting had stopped. Next Nancy learned the whole yacht full of people was hungry, so cooking was resumed and things were getting on an even keel, if you know what I mean!
Sarah, who had run the base operations in Portland, arrived in Seattle to find everything had changed and she had a two weeks paid vacation and would be relocating to LA at the end of it. She didn’t know how she felt about it, since her ex-husband was living there and they were not on friendly terms. Granted, LA was a huge place and chances were she would probably never run into him, but she would take her vacation time to think it over.
Sarah, the ladies who ran the showers, the cooks and servers, the drivers and all of the people who would be running the base in LA were each shown to a small suite where they would stay for their vacation. The lady showing them to their rooms said they could order room service and order whatever they liked. Sarah thought, “I could get used to this! I just have to not think about what this place will be used for once we leave!”
Donald changed their course to the northeast, so they were once again headed to Alaska. He checked on the miles and the gas and felt they would make it on the gas they had since he always tried to take extra in case of an emergency like this! He realized these people had left the cruise ship with very few belongings and they would be facing cold weather soon if not immediately. He tried to think about what supplies they would need and realized there would be nowhere to buy 80 winter coats and pairs of gloves.
Donald had Jim go around measuring the old folks so he could get coats to fit, pulled out his credit card and phone and ordered coats for everyone !